Dr Hortle won the Annual Health Research Infrastructure Award, which provides a high-achieving early-career scientist with funding to purchase, maintain or hire equipment associated with a basic science research project.

As part of the Immune-Vascular Interactions Laboratory, Dr Hortle has used the funding to purchase a micro-injector; a machine which is able to inject very small amounts of substance (about 2nl, or 0.000002 ml per injection).

Dr Hortle says the micro-injector is critical to her research.

“My research relies almost entirely on genetically modified fish – so that’s fish either expressing fluorescent proteins in particular cell types, or fish that have had genes that we’re interested in turned off.

“To make these genetically-modified fish, we have to inject DNA or RNA into the single-cell stage of the embryo. A single cell is very tiny, hence the need for a micro-injector.”

Brand new microinjector installed and ready to go! Seems my near future will involve a lot of transgenesis.